You do not need to be an expert to chair a bank

The financial crisis showed that experts do not always get it right and that generalists sometimes are the best people for the job

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By

David Wighton

September 7, 2018 Updated: 12:01 a.m. GMT

Could Mike Turner be the next chairman of Barclays? Almost certainly not, seems to be the City consensus.

If there is one thing we have learned from the financial crisis it is that the people appointed to oversee big financial institutions should have direct experience of working in big financial institutions. Whatever his other credentials, the former BAE Systems boss, who recently joined the Barclays board, would not have enough banking experience to satisfy the regulators, the pundits say.